An Open Book: Catholic-friendly Fiction You'll Love

This link-up hosted by Carolyn Astfalk always gets my blogging juices flowing once again.  Because who doesn't like to talk about books?!?!  (Don't answer that!  You know you do...)

I did a good bit more reading this past summer than I had been doing in recent years (sometimes while drifting on the peaceful waters of Lake Champlain, lounging on the pontoon boat with my husband--which has got to be the epitome of decadence!), and it felt GOOD!  I always had at least one book going, and sometimes two or three. (But always only one fiction title at any given time...I just can't immerse myself in two separate worlds and make friends with two casts of characters simultaneously.)

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First up is Hazel Gaynor's The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter, and I cannot recommend this engrossing and satisfying novel highly enough.  (I am a sucker for well-written historical fiction, and I will definitely be in search of other titles by Gaynor after reading this wonderful book.)

Gaynor's absorbing tale goes back and forth between 1838 and 1938 and seamlessly intertwines the lives of Grace Darling, a real life 19th-century English lighthouse keeper's daughter known as "the Heroine of Farne Isles," who became famous for risking her life in a horrific storm to help rescue some survivors of a deadly shipwreck, and the fictional Matilda Emmerson, a 20th-century Irish girl whose out-of-wedlock pregnancy lands her in Maine.  Matilda becomes  the ward of a distant relative--and lighthouse keeper--named Harriet Flaherty, whose curmudgeonly demeanor hints at a tragic past.

This fascinating story, a page-turner of a book, delves into and connects the lives of Grace, Matilda, and Harriet--with some surprising twists along the way.  There are a couple of sweet romantic storylines, but all is chaste and lovely--you will not find yourself blushing in the least.  Although I don't believe this novel is marketed as Catholic fiction per se, it showcases so many virtues that line up with the teachings of our Faith, including courage, humility, self-sacrifice, forgiveness, and most of all, love.  The pro-life cause is even highlighted, as young Matilda's maternal instincts develop and she becomes increasingly attached to the new life growing in her womb.  At one point she says that at first, she wanted nothing to do with the child; but when asked if she now feels differently, "I nod, almost ashamed to admit to the emotional connection I've felt to the child recently."

The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter has everything I love in a novel: historical events told through the medium of fiction; fully fleshed-out characters whom I connected with and loved; a heart-breaking love story; loss and suffering followed by redemption and peace; and throughout, evidence of the deep faith of the characters involved, who routinely cross themselves and say a prayer. The women speak to us in the first person, and Grace Darling talks about picking up her Bible and kneeling by the side of her bed to pray; Matilda even mentions what she was thinking about one day "as I walked to Mass," slipping that detail into her narrative as simply as can be.  How refreshing it is to have Catholicism portrayed as a part of a character's identity in a work of modern fiction, without a lot of fanfare, without disparagement or judgment. (As if all of these elements aren't enough to make me a fan, there's an added bonus: an heirloom locket--once owned by a survivor of the 1838 shipwreck, now worn by Matilda--that has been passed down through generations of women and has an intriguing story of its own to tell!)  This book is just so, so good!

Sorry, I couldn't resist.  Here's a close-up of the lighthouse
 (on an island in Lake Champlain) that is in the background
 in that picture above. (Suddenly, I'm obsessed with
lighthouses!)

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Next up, The Room on Rue Amelie, by gifted wordsmith Kristin Harmel.

Last month on the link-up, I had high praise for Harmel's The Winemaker's Wife.  It was the first book I'd read by this author and I loved her writing style so much that I immediately went in search of some of her other titles. Let me tell you, this well-researched and beautifully executed historical novel definitely did not disappoint.  In fact, I liked it even more than The Winemaker's Wife, which had a few more-detailed-than-I-prefer intimate scenes in it.

A fan of WWII historical fiction, I've read a number of novels about women in the French Resistance, so you would think that I wouldn't find anything new to hold my interest here, but nothing could be further from the truth!  The Room on Rue Amelie follows the life of a young American named Ruby Henderson who falls in love with a Frenchman, marries him, and moves to Paris in 1939.  She has a young neighbor named Charlotte whose family is Jewish, and a husband who is becoming increasingly distant and secretive.   Eventually, she will become involved in fighting the Nazi occupation by helping to smuggle downed Allied airmen out of France.  The courage and self-sacrifice displayed by the characters in this extraordinary novel (based on real heroes and heroines of WWII about which I knew nothing before) is so inspiring, and the edge-of-your-seat drama makes for a real page-turner.

As far as being Catholic-friendly, 100 percent, yes!  At one point, an English aviator who is writing a letter to the parents of a pilot friend who was shot down and killed  "found himself on his knees, praying for his friend's soul, for his own mother's soul, for an end to the fighting, and for the strength to play a role in bringing this war to an end."  Again, there is a beautiful pro-life message in this book, with a pregnant mother managing to survive months of suffering at Auschwitz, to escape against all odds, and to bring her baby into the world safely.  There's also a touching but heart-breaking love story--two of them, actually--and I won't tell you how it all ends, because I want you to read this book!

What is it about WWII historical fiction that draws me like a moth to a flame?  It is always equal parts soul-crushing and uplifting.  Having never had to live through times such as those, I think I like to read about people who had almost such super-human courage in the face of the most indescribably awful circumstances, hoping that being similarly faced one day, their stories will inspire me.

Even though novels set in that era make up a big percentage of my home library, I do sometimes read novels set in modern times as well.  Really, I do!  And I'll prove it with the next title on today's list.

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I just finished Closure, a debut novel by a talented young author named Lindsey Todd.  (This is a New Adult contemporary romance, aimed at readers 16 and up.)

I saw this book recommended by an author I follow on Instagram, so I went to Amazon to check it out.  When I realized that it was a love story about two young Catholics who started dating at 15, I knew I had to read it.  My husband and I--now in our 40th year of marriage--started dating at that same age, and there were aspects of the first few sample chapters of the book that I read before purchasing my Kindle copy that reminded me in ways of our early relationship.  Once I got further along in the book, however, it no longer resembled my own life experiences at all.  Morgan and Wade, friends who become much more, eventually embark on a physical relationship before marriage (whereas my husband and I agreed, thank God, to wait); and when one of them wants to stop having pre-marital sex after years of regularly confessing the same sin, and the other one doesn't want to stop...well, there are problems. One becomes more devout as the years go on and wants to live by the teachings of the Catholic Faith; one has been going through the motions all along and really doesn't believe any of it; and like I said...with differences like that, there are problems.

This book is well-written and kept me turning the pages. I don't want to give too much away--but I was really hoping that the one whose Faith was weak would have a reversion so that the two of them could get married and live happily ever after.  Is that what happened?  Well, I'm not going to tell you, in case you decide to read this book.

Like the other two novels I talked about today, Closure deals with themes of Faith, suffering, courage, self-sacrifice, and love (both true, self-giving love and false, selfish love); and by the end, the reader learns what this author believes TRUE love really looks like. There are a number of scenes of physical intimacy, although they are not salaciously written, and given the strong pro-chastity message of the story, I don't consider them gratuitous.  I'm sure many young people who are madly in love think that no one can understand the physical attraction and desire for intimacy they feel, because no one has ever loved anyone like they do. Well, Morgan and Wade certainly understand those type of feelings; and that makes the decision by one of them to stop what they're doing (even if it means losing the "love of their life") even more courageous--and hopefully, makes this story just the inspiration an older teen reader might need to fight similar temptations.  Todd's book is a testament to the fact that living a chaste life can be hard, but it is not impossible!  And nothing is impossible with God.

There aren't really any other characters who get fully fleshed-out, other than the two main players. And maybe the ending was a little anti-climactic.  But even so, this is a compelling tale.

Phew!  If you're still here after this blog post-turned-novel, congratulations!  And if you want any more book recs, just click on over to Carolyn's blog!

An Open Book: Novels about WWII-Era Heroes

Over the course of the past few months I have devoured seven novels, all of them set during Word War II and all featuring heroic men and women who were as courageous and daring as the soldiers fighting at the front lines.  Some of these amazing individuals, in fact, served as nurses right near those lines and sacrificed their own comfort and safety to tend to the wounded and dying.  Others did whatever they could on the home front, working tirelessly, in secret, to hide the hunted or feed the starving, often at the risk of their own lives.  Still others strived to make life within the walls of Nazi concentration camps bearable for the suffering victims imprisoned there.

I have always been drawn to historical fiction--but particularly to works of that genre that are set in the 1940's, the era of the "Greatest Generation," where the Second World War is the backdrop for the story.  What people had to endure back then--especially in Europe--is unimaginable to those of us who have never known true want or need in the course of our lives, even when our country has been at war.  These days, when our brave men and women are fighting for our freedom abroad, we here in "the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave" are not waiting in lines to get enough food to keep us from starving or experiencing any hardships even remotely similar to those endured by many poor souls during that turbulent time.  No, life goes on almost exactly as usual.  When our oldest son, at the time an Army officer and helicopter pilot, was deployed to Iraq for a year back in 2008, my husband and I realized that his life would be one of total self- sacrifice; therefore, we thought that the least we could do was to impose some Lenten-like sacrifices on ourselves.  So we gave up some favorite foods and entertainments for the year (one of them for me was reading novels--one of my best-loved rainy day or sunny day or any day activities).

I know novels are not "real"; but the authors who wrote the books I'm going to share here today all did extensive research to get every detail right, and their works have a ring of authenticity.  Some of these stories were also based on real people and events--which gives credence to the saying that "the truth is stranger than fiction."  You couldn't make this stuff up, truly you couldn't; and yet scenarios that were equal parts terrifying, heartbreaking, and inspiring, such as those described in these works of fiction, actually did happen.  In real life.

First up, a novel called The Baker's Secret by Stephen P. Kiernan.

I love to bake, so the title was what drew me to this book--on a Sam's shopping trip with my husband, where we were supposed to be buying groceries but I couldn't help browsing the book section!  When I read the synopsis on the back cover, that paperback was in our cart before you could blink your eyes.

This story is about a 22-year-old girl named Emma who lives in a Nazi-occupied village on the Normandy coast of France.  All the young and able-bodied men are off fighting the war, and the women, children, and elderly people left behind are waging their own battles to find enough food to stay alive.  Emma had apprenticed with the village baker, an older gentleman named Ezra, and when the Germans realize that she can make mouthwateringly delicious bread, she is ordered to bake a dozen baguettes a day for the occupying troops and given a steady ration of flour to do so.  Emma stealthily begins to add increasing amounts of sawdust into the dough, so that eventually she can create two extra loaves each day (with the Germans none the wiser!) which she distributes to the most needy in her village.  She begins to build a huge secret network of barter and trade in an effort to help her friends and neighbors survive the occupation.

Emma's clandestine activities are exceedingly dangerous, of course.  And Ezra is Jewish, so you can imagine this will play into the story, too. I won't say more because you should read this book!

Next up is Teresa Messineo's The Fire by Night, a page-turner of a novel.

I won't lie: the appealing cover artwork made me want to buy this paperback book.  I knew right away that it was about the era that intrigues me more than all others.  Then when I read the back cover and realized it tells the story of two American WWII nurses working on different fronts--one named Jo, who tends to the wounded in a makeshift field hospital near the front lines in war-torn France, and the other named Kay, who strives to help her fellow prisoners suffering at the hands of sadistic captors in a Japanese POW camp in Manila--I knew I had to read it.  I have always been in awe of nurses, and often thought that if I had wanted to work instead of stay at home with my boys (and if I'd been born a much less squeamish person!), being a nurse would have appealed to me more than any other profession.  I couldn't wait to dive into this novel.

This is another book that I wholeheartedly recommend.  It is an exceedingly well-written debut novel by a homeschooling mom of four who spent seven years doing exhaustive research before she began writing it.  And there is even a wonderful love story included, but I don't want to give any spoilers because you really should read it yourself.  You will come away inspired by the indomitable courage of these women--characters who are not real people but definitely resemble actual WWII nurses whose courage and strength they mirror.  It is an unforgettable, deeply inspiring book.

The next three titles I'm going to share here are stories about the Holocaust, and although they are told as fiction they were all inspired by real people and events.

Karolina's Twins, by Ronald H. Balson, will keep you turning the pages long after you should have turned out your bedside lamp and gone to sleep!

This is the second novel I've read by this talented author (the first was Once We Were Brothers, for which I wrote a review here at the blog, four years ago).  The same husband-and-wife team from that first book--private investigator Liam Taggart and attorney Catherine Lockhart--combine their skills to help an elderly woman named Lena Woodward solve the mystery about the fate of some loved ones who disappeared back in Nazi-occupied Poland during the war. When Lena's best friend Karolina dies (like so many others did during the harsh Polish winter, when they were forced to do slave labor for the Nazis while wasting away from starvation), Lena becomes the caretaker of Karolina's two small orphaned twin daughters.  Now nearing the end of her life, she is obsessed with finding out what happened to the twins.  Her son thinks she is going crazy (he doesn't really believe Karolina's twins ever existed), but Taggart and Lockhart disagree and they are determined to help Lena solve the mystery.  The story jumps back and forth in time, from present-day Chicago to World War II-era Poland, and this is a technique that this author employs skillfully.  I love his writing style--and I so enjoy how the engaging characters Taggart and Lockhart interact.  Their sometimes humorous exchanges keep a book that tells a very dark and depressing story from getting too overwhelming.  And there's even a surprising twist.

The character of Lena is based on a real woman whom the author met while doing research for the novel.  And again, the research he did was obviously extensive.  This is another novel (and author) that I highly recommend.  It's simply a great story, heart-wrenching but ultimately uplifting, another fine example of the triumph of the human spirit in the face of extreme adversity.

Another thoroughly engrossing novel that was based on actual people and events is The Tattooist of Auschwitz, by Heather Morris.

You're going to see a pattern with these books...because like all the ones I've talked about in this post already, this haunting novel illustrates that there is nothing more powerful, more indomitable, than the human spirit--even in the most horrific circumstances imaginable, even when facing the most insurmountable odds.  The fact that it is based on a true story--about a Jewish man at Auschwitz named Lale Sokolov, whose job it was to permanently mark his fellow prisoners with the numbers by which their captors identified them--makes it even more poignant.  Furthermore, the fact that Lale falls in love with a woman named Gita, whose skin he is forced to mark in this way, and that their relationship actually has the chance to blossom and grow in the midst of all the suffering and fear in the Nazi death camp, is proof of the tremendous power of love.  Lale Sokolov believes in love at first sight, and if you didn't before, you will by the time you turn the last page of this book.

Because of his job as a tattooist, Lale holds a privileged position among his fellow prisoners, and he uses every opportunity at his disposal to try to help them--repeatedly risking his own safety and even his very life in the process.  This is a tough book; any story about the Holocaust--with its countless examples of man's inhumanity to man--is bound to be.  But ultimately, this brilliantly executed novel is also about Christ-like sacrificial love, resilience, and hope.  I enthusiastically recommend it.

I recently read another novel set in that terrifying and deadly place:  Auschwitz Lullaby, by Mario Escobar.

This novel is based on a real-life heroine named Helene Hannemann, a woman who could have remained safe and free but chose instead to accompany her beloved family to Auschwitz.  Her husband is of Romani heritage (a "Gypsy"), and therefore so are her five children.  The Romani people are one of the groups targeted by Hitler's thugs.  Helene is a "pure-bred" German and thus safe from the Nazi invaders; but when the SS demands that her family be taken into custody, she insists on going with them.

Once in the camp, the infamously monstrous Dr. Mengele asks Helene to organize a school for the Romani children, and she agrees, using her relatively privileged position as a non-Jewish, non-Romani German citizen to do as much for the children as she can, creating for them as safe a haven as one could hope to find inside the fences of that terrible camp.  Helene will be given the opportunity to save herself, but will she? Can she save the Romani children in her care? Will she and her family survive the horrors of Auschwitz?

This is a spell-binding story of courage, kindness, and once again, of Christ-like sacrificial love.  I was inordinately touched by it.  I couldn't stop thinking about Helene Hannemann and her incredible selflessness and strength, long after I'd finished the last chapter.  I guarantee if you choose to read this beautiful testament to the power of the human spirit over adversity, you will not be disappointed.

Thus far, the novels I've highlighted here have told stories about characters' experiences in Western Europe and the Far East during WWII; this next one tells what things were like in Stalin's Russia during that same period.

Kristin Hannah's Winter Garden is an absolutely enthralling, epic tale, with some of the most heart-wrenching scenes I've read in modern literature, and I really don't think you want to miss it!

I have heard that Hannah's The Nightengale is also an excellent novel, and after reading this one I believe I may have to put that title on my "to read" list!  If it is even half as well-written and engrossing as this incredibly affecting tale of suffering and perseverance, of brokenness and forgiveness, and more than anything else, of the fierceness of a mother's love, I'm sure it's a winner.

In Winter Garden, this extremely capable author goes back and forth in time, between Leningrad in 1941 and Washington state in 2000.  Anya Whitson is now an elderly woman of Russian descent who used to tell her adult daughters, Nina and Meredith, fairy tales about a girl named Vera and her Russian prince.  But she was a cold and distant mother the whole time they were growing up, and they relied almost completely on their American-born father for parental affection.  They stopped being interested in Anya's fables years ago.

Knowing he's close to death, their father worries that his girls will drift away from their mother, whom he loves deeply, after he's gone; so he begs Nina and Meredith to let their mother tell them the whole fairy tale.  As more and more details emerge, they begin to realize that perhaps their mother has been telling a true story all along.  And then they begin to wonder if the person she calls Vera is actually Anya herself.  Most astoundingly, they learn that perhaps their mother is not an unfeeling person at all, but has endured such heartbreaking losses that she has put up a wall around herself all these years as a defense mechanism.

I'd heard, of course, that millions of people died under Stalin's dictatorship--most of them from starvation; but I knew little to nothing about what life was like in Russia during WWII. I've always been more interested in what was going on in the European war theater.  This book was a revelation to me.  And ultimately, it was one of the most touching books I have ever read.  As a mother, it is almost impossible to comprehend what Anya had endured as a young woman living in war-torn Leningrad; there are passages that will make you weep.  But ultimately, Winter Garden is a story of hope, of family love, and of the courage and fortitude of one determined young woman, who persevered and almost to her own surprise survived some of the most harrowing experiences imaginable.

Three words: read this book!

Finally, I read an engaging and very enlightening novel called The Atomic City Girls, by Janet Beard, a story set inTennessee in 1944.  This is another book that grabbed me with the cover graphics right off the bat.

June Walker is a wide-eyed 18-year-old girl who goes to work at a place not far from where she grew up known as Oak Ridge, alongside soldiers, scientists, and other workmen.  She and many other young women become residents of a secret city that is a military reservation; they are told, "What you do here, what you see here, what you hear here, let it stay here."  They know that what they are doing will help to win the war, but they aren't allowed to ask questions about the machines they man or to talk about what they do to outsiders.  Unbeknownst to June and the other "Atomic City girls" who work at the facility with her, they are actually monitoring machines that are enriching the uranium that will eventually be used in the atomic bombs that are dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

I've heard of the Manhattan Project, and of course knew that many scientists worked to create the powerful weapons that brought an end to the war.  But I really had no idea that a place like Oak Ridge existed, and that naïve young people like June Walker were put to work to move this top-secret project along.  This was a very interesting and informative book, complete with official Department of Energy photos from the period.  (I believe this could be used in a high school classroom setting, when studying about WWII.)  It was populated with characters I cared about and was quite well-written.  I give it two thumbs up.

Okay, before I sign off, here is a quick plug for my own first novel, Finding Grace:

I have always been a huge fan of stories set in WWII that feature characters who triumph over adversity, who endure the most horrific kinds of suffering and live to see better days, with their faith intact--especially stories about the Holocaust that show man at his worst but also at his very best and finest, his bravest and most self-sacrificing.  When I set out to write what I thought would be my one-and-only novel, I wanted to figure out a way to incorporate something about the Holocaust into the book, even though it was a story about a young Catholic girl coming of age in the early 1970's.  So I gave Grace Kelly some across-the-street elderly neighbors named the Perlmanns, who had survived Auschwitz and moved to the US after the camps were liberated.  I think that section gave the book some added depth and a bit of an historical fiction component.

Okay then, that's it for me.  Congratulations if you're still here--this was a long one!   But this is what happens when I start talking about how I cannot resist well-written novels set in WWII...

Now head on over to Carolyn's Open Book link-up for more great reading suggestions.

An Open Book: My Brother Pier Giorgio, His Last Days

At the end of this post, I'm going to recycle an old Amazon/Goodreads review that I wrote six years ago, because it is about a book which I believe should be read by as many people as possible and I love having the opportunity to promote it.  This book is a biographical work titled My Brother Pier Giorgio, His Last Days, written by the saint-in-the-making's sister, Luciana Frassati.

If you haven't heard of this extraordinary young man, or if you don't know a whole lot about him, Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati's life story is utterly fascinating and incredibly inspiring.  This particular book deals only with his final week on earth--with his last days: his "passion" and tragic death from polio at the age of just 24.  If you want to read more about him, here is a short article; or you could read this biography,  A Man of the Beatitudes, a longer book also penned by his sister, which covers his whole life from birth to death.  (I had my youngest son read this more in-depth book in 8th grade, when he was being homeschooled; I can't think of a better--or more relatable--role model than Pier Giorgio, when it comes to helping adolescent boys grow in manly virtue.)

I admire Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati so much that I had to include him in my Catholic novel Finding Grace.   I thought this would be the only novel I would ever write, and I wanted to include every subject that was important to me; this saintly young man made the cut.

My shy little heroine, Grace Kelly, who is determined to achieve the goal of sainthood while living in the in the turbulent, post-Vatican II 1970's, is "introduced" to Pier Giorgio.  (I won't tell you how--you'll have to read the book to find out!  But it took some finagling, I'll tell you, because the story takes place long before he was beatified.)  She becomes enchanted with him to the point of having a bit of a crush, even though he's been long dead. 

After discovering Pier Giorgio in a book about modern saints called Faces of Holiness,  I was intrigued by the handsome young Italian who'd had such a short life but had made such an impact during his time on earth.   I wanted to read as much as I could find about him.  (Indeed, I developed a bit of a "saint crush" on Pier Giorgio--just like my Grace did in the novel.)  That is what led me to the first book I ever read about him, My Brother Pier Giorgio, His Last Days, a slim volume that stayed with me long after I'd finished it.  I devoured it in one sitting and have re-read it many times since.   I'm sure I'll read it again, too.  In fact, writing about it today is making me feel like reading it very soon.  (Into the bedside table "to read" pile it goes!)

I can't recommend this book highly enough.  Here's that review that was first published six years ago.  (If you do read this book, I'd love to know what you think of it--and of him!)
 

My Brother Pier Giorgio: His Last Days
by Luciana Frassati

Laura Pearl's review

Sep 18, 13                                                

5 of 5 stars

It's almost impossible for me to put into words how inspiring this book is. Luciana Frassati's memoir about her brother's last week on earth--when he lay dying of polio at the age of 24, surrounded by his unwitting loved ones in his family home, quietly suffering until the bitter end so as not to divert the attention from his elderly grandmother, who was also dying--is one of the most moving and affecting tributes it has ever been my privilege to read.

I was first introduced to Pier Giorgio Frassati (1901-1925), a perfect model of Christian faith, hope, and charity if there ever was one, when I read a couple of pages about him in a book about modern saints called Faces of Holiness. Something about his story--and his handsome face with its engaging smile--spoke to me, and I wanted to learn all I could about him.

My Brother Pier Giorgio, His Last Days is the first complete book I ever read about this future saint, who was named a Blessed by Pope John Paul II and is considered a patron of young adults (although I went on to read a biography, also penned by his sister, titled A Man of the Beatitudes). I devoured it in one sitting. And not long afterward, I re-read it. Then I re-read it, and for good measure, I re-read it once again...I truly don't know how many times I've read this beautiful book at this point. It's a slim volume, and a quick read; but so much holiness, self-sacrifice, and love are packed in its pages.

This book will inspire you to become a saint, and it will show you that you can be an "average Joe" like this young Italian man was--an athletic mountain climber, a jokester with countless friends, a student who struggled academically, a son who was misunderstood and underappreciated by his family, a man in love who had to renounce the woman of his dreams because his parents didn't approve of her--and yet, you can make the kind of heroic sacrifices in your daily life that will put you on the path to Heaven. You can love God and revere the Blessed Mother. You can treat the poor and the sick with true Christian charity.

It has been said of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati that he always carried a Rosary in his pocket, and that people were moved to imitate him just by seeing the joy on his face when he prayed. I know that I, for one, have been moved by him. And this heartbreaking, but ultimately uplifting, story of his last days is well worth your time--whether you're a Catholic or not. 

That's it for me.  But don't forget to head on over to Carolyn Astfalk's latest Open Book link-up for more book recommendations!

An Open Book: A Trio of Love Stories

This is going to be a bit on the long side; but I wanted to talk about three different novels I've read in the past month or so--a trio of love stories, two of them by Catholic authors whom I admire and the third by a NY Times best-selling author who caters to a more secular audience.  (I'm going to try really hard not to give too many spoilers!)

First up, Ornamental Graces, by Carolyn Astfalk (who happens to be the host of this link-up).

I recently ordered a Kindle copy of Astfalk's romantic novel (which has a 4.5 out of 5-star rating on Amazon and has been reviewed positively by several Catholic authors which whom I'm eFriendly).  I wanted to get this book uploaded in time for my recent trip to Rome with my husband, and I read it on the airplane on the way back home.  I found it to be a highly enjoyable story, written with compassion and insight--and plenty of sometimes bitingly witty, other times poignantly tender dialogue between well-drawn, sympathetic characters--by an author whose prose is clean and uncluttered and compulsively readable.  Getting lost in this will-they-or-won't-they drama was a wonderful distraction for a recovering white-knuckle flyer like me, and the flight flew by.  (See what I did there?)

When I looked at the appealing poinsettia-red cover of Ornamental Graces, which is graced with a Christmas tree ornament, an evergreen branch, and a love-struck couple embracing in the snow, I couldn't help but think that this book would be akin to a sweet and simple Hallmark Christmas movie (you know, a holiday love story with a predictable but satisfying happy ending), but told from a Catholic perspective.  I couldn't have been more wrong.  Astfalk's novel is so much deeper than a Hallmark movie; it tackles some of the most difficult subjects--human frailty, sin (sins against chastity in particular), faith, and redemption--while telling the story of Dan Malone and Emily Kowalski, two twenty-somethings who fall in love but spend most of the novel at cross purposes.  At times, I was reminded of Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (one of my all-time favorite books), who never seem to be on the same page, even though it is plainly obvious to the reader that they are meant to be together.  Every time Dan and Emily grow closer, something--usually a hidden truth about Dan's checkered past, but sometimes a simple misunderstanding caused by poor communication--tears them apart again.  I wanted to strangle one or both of them a few times!  But those two crazy kids kept me turning the pages--just like Rhett and Scarlett did!

Dan is slightly older than Emily; he previously had a shallow, long-term relationship with an unsuitable woman, a relationship that included pre-marital sex but very little substance.  After a painful break-up, he turns away from God, choosing instead to drown his sorrows in booze and drugs.  Once a devout Catholic who carried a Rosary in his back pocket, he has lost his faith and can't believe he is worthy of any woman, especially one as uncomplicated and sweet and faith-filled as Emily.  Emily's past is much different than Dan's; she has not has much experience with men at all (and definitely has never had a physical relationship with one), and she doesn't have any confidence in herself when it comes to the opposite sex.  These two young people don't think they're "good enough," but for different reasons.  Dan has been forgiven of his past sinful life by God through sacramental grace, but he still can't forgive himself; Emily suffers from a lack of self-esteem, thinking she's not pretty or interesting enough to attract men.  Both dream of getting married and starting a family, but so far they haven't had much luck. They meet and feel a connection, but must go through a roller coaster of ups and downs before they finally learn the healing power of God's grace and the true meaning of love.

Ornamental Graces is spicier (less Hallmark-y) than I thought it would be, as far as the sexual situations it explores; there isn't a lot of embarrassing detail, but I would still rate this an adult book and would not recommend it for a young adult reader.  The characters come dangerously close to ruining their chances for a holy union a few times, due to the near occasions of sin in which they find themselves when they let their guard down.  But this is balanced out by their commitment to chastity and abstinence, and by the way they turn to prayer to receive the grace from God that will give them the strength to keep their relationship pure.  Dan doesn't want to make the same mistakes with Emily--a wonderful girl whom he hopes to marry one day--that he made with his former girlfriend, with whom he shared a sinful life.

I did enjoy this book; I really liked the characters of Dan and Emily (even though both, especially Dan, were quite flawed--which I suppose is exactly why they did seem so real).

One of my favorite characters in the book is Dan's grandma--a chocolate chip cookie-baking, Miraculous Medal-wearing, devout Catholic woman who never ceases praying for her wayward grandson and "interfering" in his life in the best way.  I won't give away too much here--but it is evident that her prayers on his behalf were heard, because there is a conversion scene in this book that is extremely touching (especially to someone like me, who also wears a Miraculous Medal always, and who even owns a first-class relic of St. Catherine Laboure).

Aside from the relationship between Dan and his grandmother, I loved the family dynamic between Emily and her married brother Robert's big, rowdy brood.  The descriptions of what life is like in a household that has five young children living in it rang utterly true-to-life.

There are some powerful messages in this book: that you can't live an unchaste life and then just decide to change when you meet the right person, with no lasting wounds; that the negative effects of that kind of sinful lifestyle can be far-reaching and have the power to destroy future relationships; that God can forgive us much more easily than we can forgive ourselves; and that if we don't love ourselves, it is hard to truly love others.  Best of all, there is a clear pro-chastity, pro-life message that desperately needs to be heard in this day and age.  For that reason most of all, I hope that Ornamental Graces will find its way into the hands of as many readers as possible.

Next up is Katie Curtis' The Wideness of the Sea (4.3 out of 5 stars on Amazon), a book I've had for over a year now and for which I am finally posting a review!

After reading lots of buzz about Katie's book on my favorite social media platform, Instagram, I ordered a copy.   It was sort of a Christmas present--from me to me--in December of 2017.

I did read this book several months after that IG selfie was posted.  But I never got around to writing my review, because, well...life...and grandbabies...and I've got a whole bunch of other really good excuses.  I recently decided to read it again, in order to have it fresh in my mind for this review.

I am an admirer of Katie Curtis, who has a popular food blog (The Humble Onion) aside from her regular blog, and has written for numerous other publications as well.  The Wideness of the Sea is her first novel.

Anyone who can raise six kids (including twin toddler boys) and still flourish as a working writer is kind of my hero.  (I didn't get around to embarking on my writing "career" until my five boys were mostly grown!)  It's too bad that I didn't become acquainted with Katie sooner, or we might have been able to meet in real life.  She hails from Portsmouth, NH, which is a stone's throw from Dover, NH, where my husband and I made our home for almost three decades before moving to VA in 2017.

This debut novel, a story of lost loves and fractured families, of forgiveness and redemption, is set in Maine, a wildly beautiful state with which I fell completely in love during my years living on the nearby NH Seacoast.  If you've ever visited the lighthouse-dotted seaside of Maine, you know that there just isn't anyplace in the world like it.  The setting for this book is one of the reasons I was drawn to it. 

Okay then, here is a quick synopsis:

Anna Goodrich is a 28-year-old artist who grew up in Coastal Maine but has been living in New York City for seven years, working at an art gallery and also selling her own original paintings.  After years of being pressured by her domineering father to work on her art and rebelling against him, she paints in secret.  Her big-city life is hectic and high-powered, and it bears little resemblance to the slow-paced, small-town existence she left behind: she has a job she loves, a loyal roommate, and a handsome, charming boyfriend named Raphael, a workaholic with whom she enjoys a busy social life.  There is also an old flame living back home in Maine, a man whom Anna has tried to forget all these years.

Anna is the daughter of a well-known artist, Therese McAllister, who was not only a loving mother to both Anna and her sister Marie, but also mentored Anna in her formative years and helped her to develop her natural artistic talents.  When she is in 10th grade,  Anna falls in love with a boy named Andrew, her older brother's friend, and the relationship lasts all the way through college graduation.  But having sacrificed going to art school to follow Andrew to U Maine Orono, Anna feels it is now Andrew's turn to follow her when she wants to move to NYC to get away from her father, who has become increasingly controlling in the wake of Anna's mother's death.  John Goodrich thinks that by giving up painting, his daughter is wasting the talents she inherited from his late wife, for whom he is grieving; but Anna is so traumatized after losing her mother that she can't bring herself to work on her art.  And for his part, Andrew just cannot leave Maine and the lobster fishing business that his father started ad that he has plans to take over.  This disagreement leads to a painful break-up for these high school sweethearts.

When Anna's Uncle Charlie dies suddenly and unexpectedly, she goes home for the funeral.  At the reading of the will, she is shocked to learn that her uncle has bequeathed his beach house to her.  While she's in the area, reconnecting with Marie (and her family) and doing some odd projects around her uncle's house, she runs into Andrew and sparks fly.  Ultimately, Anna is faced with making some tough decisions.  Should she sell Uncle Charlie's house and return to NYC?  Should she keep it as a vacation home?  Does she belong with Raphael, or is Andrew really the one for her?  As she searches for answers, Anna does come to the poignant realization that "the people who know you well, that have known you for your whole life, are irreplaceable.  No new addition in your life can ever have what you shared with them.  Your past is gone, except for the people who carry it with you.  But they take that part of you when they go."  And like birds who always instinctively migrate home, she knows that no matter how far away she might roam, "her instincts would take her back to Maine, and to the sea."

There are some things I really liked about this book.  One of them is the character of Andrew: he is kind, humble, responsible, hard-working, steady as a rock--and let's not forget, easy on the eyes!  There's the perpetually mussed-up hair, the sun-reddened cheeks when he comes in from a day spent out on his boat setting lobster traps, and the shy, crooked smile that so disarms Anna and makes her go weak in the knees; really, what's not to like?  He reminds me of my own high school love, my husband, whom I met at about the same age as Anna meets Andrew, and who is--in my humble opinion--the best template for creating a fictional love interest that I can imagine!  Here is one of my favorite quotes about Andrew: "He was a captain.  There was something about him on the water.  He was a person in his element, doing what he was born to do.  Like God had called him to be a lobsterman.  An behind him sat the wideness of the sea."

I have to say that I didn't quite get Anna and Raphael.  They don't seem to fit, as a couple, and I don't understand why Anna thinks they do.  As Marie puts it, they are "two puzzle pieces that almost fit, but not quite."  Raphael is often referred to as "charming" in the book, but I don't find him particularly so.  Now Andrew, on the other hand...I would like to have seen more scenes with him in this novel.  Less Raphael, more Andrew!  Although truly, they are both good men; there are no villains here. (Speaking of relationships, I just wanted to add that I appreciate that this book does not glorify the usual secularized, morally relativistic attitude regarding pre-marital sex.  If Anna and Raphael are having physical relations, this is never mentioned.  The same goes for Anna and Andrew.  Hugging and kissing is as far as it goes.)

Some of the other characters, like Anna's big sister Marie and her husband Mike (parents of an adorable boy named Henry), are quite endearing as well.  Marie and Mike are so very uncomplicated and normal, a quite genuine example of a happily married couple.  Marie is a good foil for Anna, a steadying force for a younger sister who tends to be more high-strung, emotional, and unsure of what she wants in life.  And Marie is also a great example of grace under pressure when dealing with life's trials and tribulations.

I am always happy to read stories like this that show how through God's help we are given the graces that can heal wounds and soften hearts.  Anna's faith life had become non-existent in the wake of her mother's death, and going to Mass on Sundays had not been part of her rather shallow existence in NYC.  Once back home in Maine, she begins to go to church again, and as her relationship with God improves, so do her relationships with the people in her life.  The Wideness of the Sea explores the idea that no matter how tough things get, no matter how long a feud between relatives might go on, in the end, the people who love you most and are there for you no matter what are the members of your family.  And just as God loves us, His children, so much that there is nothing we can do that's so bad it can't be forgiven, so it goes between earthly parents and their offspring.

My one caveat is that this book could have used more careful proofreading and editing.  Typos and grammatical errors distracted me at times and lessened my enjoyment of what was otherwise a very good story.  (I think it's possible that I'm a frustrated copy editor, however; so this is a pet peeve of mine, but might not be as big a deal for someone else.)

The Wideness of the Sea tackles a lot of heavy topics and weaves them together nicely.  Ultimately, I found it to be a heartwarming and satisfying tale.  I won't tell you if Anna ends up with steadfast Andrew (the member of this love triangle for whom I was most definitely rooting throughout the book) or with suave Raphael.  But by the end of the novel, you'll get the message loud and clear that if you find the place you're meant to call home and the person with whom you're meant to share your life, you're pretty lucky.  Almost as lucky as you are if you get to see a blue lobster (a creature with a genetic anomaly that has a mere one in two million chance of occurring)--not once, but twice, with your own eyes.

Who gets to see this this extremely rare and beautiful genetic mutant?  Do you want to know?  I guess you'll have to read the book to find out! ;)

And finally, here are a few words about Susan Wiggs' Map of the Heart.

Touted on the back cover as a "sweeping story that spans generations and continents," it is a very well-written book and a bit of a page-turner.  This is a work of historical fiction (my favorite genre!), going back and forth between present-day America and WWII-era (my favorite era!) France.

There are so many things to like here.

The historical parts are well-researched and fascinating.  Then there are the long-held family secrets, exposed via old family photos found in a dusty old trunk in the attic of a crumbling old house (who isn't a sucker for that sort of thing, right?!).  There are so many mysteries surrounding the lives the main character's grandparents, and finding out when and how they will be solved keeps the reader on the edge of her seat.  The author's writing style appeals to me.  The characters interact in a natural way and their dialogue is often quite humorous and entertaining.  And there are characters in this book who exhibit almost superhuman courage during the war, risking all--even their own lives--to do what is right.

BUT...there are also some things I didn't like.

I suspect that Wiggs is a Christian author, and there is evidence of this sprinkled throughout the book.  Mass is mentioned.  Prayer is mentioned, and not in a disparaging way.  The fact that the USO handed out prayer cards to US soldiers during the war is mentioned.  HOWEVER: the main character, a widow named Camille Adams (whose father grew up in war-torn France), talks about the relationships she's had after her husband's untimely death, and she says that one man got "all weird and Catholicky on me."  He was a "one-date wonder" because he "took some of the doctrines a bit too literally"--meaning, he wouldn't sleep with her because they weren't married!  It annoyed me that the author describes a person who wanted to adhere to the teachings of the Faith as "too Catholicky."  Also, there are other aspects of the book that pander to a modern, secularist world view of morality that I won't mention here; suffice it to say that even though this historical novel has much to recommend it, I did not feel as good upon finishing it as I did with either Astfalk's or Curtis' cleaner, more morally uplifting works of fiction.

Okay, that's it for me.  (Sorry for the length of this post--I guess I had a lot to say!)  Now head on over to Carolyn Astfalk's link-up to see what books are keeping other readers up way past their bedtimes.

An Open Book: A Single Bead, YA Catholic Fiction at Its Finest

First of all, I want to thank Carolyn Astfalk for hosting this link-up, which I haven't gotten around to joining much in the past year or so (because Grammy time trumps writing time, always--and I've got 14 little ones to spoil now!).  I'm happy to be back here, however, talking about one of my favorite subjects: Catholic fiction.

Secondly, before I even begin my review of Stephanie Engelman's A Single Bead, I just want to say a few quick things about it: Five out of five stars! ***** Highly recommended!  Get a copy for your favorite young (or not-so-young) reader, stat!

I am always eager to help other Catholic authors whenever possible, because the work they do can be such an important evangelical tool--and this is especially true of fiction, I believe, because often YA readers prefer an engaging made-up story, populated by characters to whom they can relate, to a work of non-fiction, which they might consider a bit too phlegmatic for their taste.  I am convinced that fiction can do much good in the world, and that promoting entertaining books that showcase the beauty and Truth of the Catholic Faith is a very worthy cause.  We need to get this kind of edifying literature into the hands of as many young readers as possible, so that they can be armed to become soldiers for Christ in an increasingly sinful world--one that needs as many tireless and passionately committed warriors for Him as it can get.

Having heard a lot of positive buzz about Engelman's novel, I finally got my hands on a copy (so long ago now that I can't even remember exactly when), and I devoured it in a few sittings.  I was blown away by the way the Rosary--the Pearl family's favorite daily prayer--is the heart and soul of the book.  To say that I am a fan of this well-written YA novel is an understatement.  I felt it would be an honor to help spread the word about it in my own small way here at the blog; but then I got busy with family life and didn't get my thoughts about the book down on paper (or computer) right away...and time flew by...and I eventually realized that if I was going to give the review the attention it deserved, I needed to see the book with fresh eyes.

So I recently read it again.  And you know what?  I'm not sorry at all that I had to read it twice for this review--because A Single Bead is an utterly charming and deeply touching story, told with keen insight and filled with a large cast of flawed but lovable characters who are all at different stages of their faith journeys; and best of all, it has a profound message hidden in or between every single line, and it is this: there is nothing more powerful than prayer, and there is no prayer more powerful than the Rosary.

When the story opens, we meet Katelyn Roberts, an angsty 16-year-old who is with her large extended family at the site of a plane crash that took the life of her beloved grandmother a year earlier.  In spite of being a member of a tight-knit Catholic clan that includes numerous devout members (including an uncle who is a holy but very down-to-earth priest), Kate's faith is not very strong.  She hasn't said a Rosary since she made her First Holy Communion--in fact, she hasn't said many prayers at all lately.  She's not even sure that she believes in the power of prayer anymore and wonders if God is even listening. Everyone in the family has struggled with Grandma's death in his or her own way; after all, she was the glue that held them all together, and losing her so suddenly and violently was unspeakably tragic.  But Kate's mom is the only one who just can't seem to figure out how to cope with her grief, and she has become clinically depressed.  Once very close, she and Kate have developed a strained relationship.

Kate wanders away from the memorial service, drawn inexplicably to the nearby woods.  And there in the grass, she finds a bead from her grandmother's Rosary, which had been somehow missed by the crash scene investigators a year ago.  And it's not just any bead; Kate's grandmother had the initials of each of her children and grandchildren engraved on the silver beads of her Rosary, and this one, by some miracle, happens to be Kate's bead!

Not long after her great discovery, Kate learns that other people--strangers who happen to be going through serious crises in their own lives--have found beads from Grandma's Rosary, too, and that they seem to have experienced what can only be considered true miracles.  Kate enlists the aid of her best friend and cousin, Evelyn, in a quest to find Kate's mother's bead, hoping it will lead to the miracle for which Kate has been praying.  She is desperate to get her hands on it!  Could having that precious bead be the key to bringing about the emotional and mental healing of her tortured mother?

I won't say any more about the plot (other than that it's a page-turner), because I don't want to give too much away.  But suffice it to say that Kate learns that even a single bead from the Rosary can change lives. The Devil fears Our Lady and Her Rosary, and for good reason: this prayer draws countless souls away from him and towards God.  And that is just what happens in the course of this sometimes sad but ultimately heartwarming novel. Kate's transformation--from a petulant teenager searching for a "magic bullet" that will fix her mom, into a mature, compassionate, prayerful young woman--is just the sort of "coming of age" tale that could provide much-needed inspiration for young readers who are on the cusp of adulthood.  (And like all good YA fiction, it is a compelling read even for those adults who aren't quite so young anymore.)

Engelman's characters are fully fleshed-out and sympathetic; the beliefs of the Catholic Faith are explained gently but truthfully, and without apology, through conversations between Kate and some of her mom's siblings; and the mystery of the beads--and how they got into the hands of the very people who seemed to need them most--keeps the reader guessing and eager to find out what happens next.  Like I said, it's a page-turner.  This is an all-around terrific novel--certainly for Catholics, but I believe it could also be enjoyed by readers of any religious tradition.

A Single Bead shows that life is messy, and it's hard--and that even when we pray, we don't know if our prayers will be answered the way we want them to be.  But it also shows that we have to trust in God's plan for our lives, trust that if we give all of our worries over to Him, He will take care of us.  This deeply affecting story about suffering and pain that eventually leads to forgiveness and healing reminds us that even when something unspeakably horrible happens (yes, even something as tragic as a fatal plan crash), God can make good come from bad.  As Kate's Uncle [Father] Joseph puts it, "So, while a Rosary bead, in and of itself, doesn't possess power, God can make use of an  object--or a situation, or a person, or anything, for that matter--to give us his grace."

A quick aside before I wrap this up: along with being a testament to the power of the Rosary, this book also shows that there are no bonds in this earthly life stronger than those of family.  As I read Engelman's descriptions of Kate's many aunts and uncles and cousins, I kept thinking of our own extended clan--although we don't have a priest in the family (yet!).  And Kate's grandmother reminded me very much of my late beloved mother-in-law, a devout lady whose life also revolved around praying for the many loved ones in her life--including 8 married children and 32 grandchildren. She was a Rosary- and novena-praying ninja!  She prayed constantly for all of us and our special intentions, and we received many graces and blessings because of the time she spent with Rosary beads in her hands.

There has been a lot of well-deserved praise for Stephanie Engelman's debut novel, which has even been translated for foreign markets. Kudos to this gifted author for using her estimable writing talent to tell a story about the healing power of Mary (and Her Rosary) in a struggling young girl's life--and indeed, in the lives of so many others as well.  I think Mary's Son would very much approve.

I hope to be back in the coming months with reviews of three other Catholic novels I'm reading, one of them YA (The Perfect Blindside) and the other two just plain A.  Stay tuned, readers!  And in the meantime, join Carolyn et. al. for more book recommendations.